Once you have a Vision,
and a Strategy for how to achieve
your Vision, you will need a plan to detail how you will achieve
your goals. The two primary components of a Business Plan are
the Marketing Plan and the
Financial Plan. These two components
are best developed jointly as every marketing strategy has financial
implications both for positive and negative cash flow.
Write your Business Plan with the reader
in mind. If the document is for an investor to review it is written
from a different perspective and with different emphasis than
for a bank or other lender.
Can
we hire someone to write our Business Plan for us?
There are many people who will write
a plan for you. However, you are the team that will be expected
to explain the plan to your investors and lenders and to implement
the plan. If you do not know and live this plan it is a wasted
investment. If you received your financing based upon a plan
and then file it in a drawer and ignore it, you run risk of,
at minimum, alienating your investors and lenders.
How
can we write a Business Plan?
A good coach, with years of experience
preparing successful business plans, can lead you through this process. Not
do it for you-- but help you learn how do it for yourselves.
They will be a good editor, point you to areas where your plan
needs work, give you ideas on how you can improve it and keep
you to a schedule to make sure it is completed in a timely fashion.
The one area that may require outside
expertise is the financial projections. A good coach can help
you prepare numbers based upon your assumptions and decisions
and raw data.